With the eyes of the world on Russia, a deeply strange bit of cyber terror hit Tipperary this week.

Earlier this week, quotes appeared on Twitter which looked like a screengrab of the Tipperary Star website featuring quotes attributed to West Tipperary County Board Chairman John O'Shea calling for the staging of a protest march calling for the dismissal of Michael Ryan and his backroom staff.

It turns out, however, that this was all fake news, as the Tipperary Star elucidated via a statement on their website earlier today. The site called it all an "an elaborate hoax".

The hoax post on social media which bears the banner of Tipperary Star website, this reporter's by-line, and quotes attributed to Mr O'Shea is a complete hoax and has caused much distress to everyone involved.

The Tipperary Star's attention was first drawn to this hoax by an official of the County Board and Mr O'Shea also learned about it from a third party. Mr O'Shea subsequently told The Tipperary Star that he had not spoken to anyone about the Tipperary senior hurling management team since his comments on Tipp Mid West Radio on Sunday evening - his comments also appeared in The Irish Examiner on Tuesday morning.

The Tipperary Star can confirm that our website was not used to publish this story but an elaborate photoshoping of the webpage has been deployed to create this 'fake news'.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Tipperary planned to retain faith in Michael Ryan and his management team in spite of a disappointing 2018 championship in which they failed to progress to the All-Ireland championship.